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Naguib Sawiris
Naguib Sawiris
Executive Chairman, Orascom
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Naguib Sawiris | In2Metals | Egypt Mining Forum 2026

📅 Sep 29, 2026 Egypt Mining Forum 10 MIN 128 VIEWS 28 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
Egypt’s gold sector is gaining renewed momentum, with exploration remaining central to its future growth. At the Egypt Mining Forum 2026, Naguib Sawiris, Chairman of In2Metals, joined Eithne Treanor to discuss Egypt’s mineral potential, the outlook for gold and the opportunities for further exploration, particularly across the Eastern Desert. He highlighted the progress made in Egypt’s mining sector in recent years, while emphasising the importance of maintaining momentum through new concessions, continued investment in geophysical data and greater access to prospective areas. Naguib als...

What Naguib Sawiris said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Naguib Sawiris, Executive Chairman of Orascom, discussed gold investment in Egypt at the Egypt Mining Forum. He argued that gold demand will trend upward because bringing new mines to production takes seven years, while consumption grows with population, industry, and government reserve-building. Exploration is a high-risk business; spending $20-40 million may yield nothing, requiring skilled geologist-financiers. He welcomed the military's crackdown on illegal miners in the Eastern Desert, calling them heavily armed bandits, and urged the government to maintain security presence and open unexplored areas. Sawiris noted that Egypt missed 15-20 years of foreign investment and talent development in mining because engineers preferred oil and gas. He supports responsible mining that restores land and builds better homes for relocated communities. He encouraged companies to donate to universities to foster mining engineering talent. He believes gold income could surpass oil and gas income, citing Sudan as an example. He is not a fan of refineries, stating a $100 million investment would create only five jobs. He submitted bids for new concessions and wants the government to open unused concessions and invest in geophysical data collection.

Key takeaways

  1. Gold demand will always trend up because new mine production takes seven years, while consumption rises with population, industry and central-bank buying.
  2. Exploration is a high-risk business where spending $20-40 million can result in finding nothing.
  3. Sawiris is 'very happy' with the army's crackdown on heavily armed illegal miners who extorted and blocked mining companies.
  4. Gold income could surpass oil and gas income in Egypt, as it did in Sudan after partition.
  5. Refineries are not worth it: a $100 million investment creates only five jobs and only 5-6 refineries worldwide have the required certification.

Numbers and commitments

FigureWhat it refers toTypeAt
$20-40 million Possible exploration spending with no discovery commitment 2:05
90% Of gold sector workmanship is in exploration and mining metric 8:03
$100 million Investment that would create only five jobs in a refinery price 8:03
15 to 20 years ago Timeline of missed foreign investment in Egyptian mining timeline 4:32

Chapters

  1. 0:00Why invest in Egypt's gold
  2. 1:07Gold demand trend and mine lead time
  3. 2:05Exploration risk and funding
  4. 2:58Eastern Desert security and illegal miners
  5. 5:51Talent shortage and university training
  6. 6:59Regulatory improvements and momentum
  7. 7:29Gold income versus oil and gas
  8. 8:03Refineries not worth the investment
  9. 8:55Bids for new concessions and data collection

Questions asked in this interview

12
  1. 0:00Why your investment and why now?
  2. 1:44As a junior miner, which I suppose you're in the kind of the frontier of exploring for gold, looking for gold, you know, where are the challenges in this because it's not always easy?
  3. 2:39Okay, the Eastern Desert... hasn't explored yet, has it?
  4. 3:23You know, the move that the government made, the army made here, are you happy now that the sense of security on the mines, you know, puts you as an investor at ease?
  5. 4:09But what have we missed out in terms of those gap years?
  6. 4:54Do you see that mining can be maybe not green, but getting there?
  7. 5:51Where can we begin to get the interest in the industry and get the talent reinvigorated?
  8. 6:44And what do you need to see as an investor here and indeed to encourage more investors to come in?
  9. 7:19What can it contribute to the country, to the GDP, to the economic development?
  10. 7:55Is there a downstream market on the gold sector that we could start developing in Egypt, or are we just looking at where do we put gold for the future?
  11. 8:55Would you be interested in that down the road?
  12. 9:20What do you want to see happening now that you really believe that from where we are in Egypt, the momentum is there to really drive that forward?
Interviewer 0:00 ↗
When it comes to metals and minerals and mining in Egypt, there is a new shine coming on the gold sector. And we're here to talk with Naguib Sawiris, who is the chairman of Centamin. Thank you so much for joining us. Gold is at a very exciting time in the world and the market, but particularly for you when it comes to investment, too. Why Egypt? Why your investment and why now?
Naguib Sawiris 0:22 ↗
No, first, Egypt is my home country. I mean, I can be an investor in most of the African countries and Latin America and not invest in my own country. But historically, Egypt has had a large gold deposit. We can see when the pharaohs and how much gold was used and so on. And personally, I believe that in the coming years, there is a lot of results going to come up to prove my point that Egypt sits on a very high asset called gold, copper, silver and minerals and other minerals.
Interviewer 0:57 ↗
Now, gold is clearly a future for gold. We look at the demand that is out there. Talk to us a little bit about that because clearly this is an investment that you want to look at for the long term.
Naguib Sawiris 1:07 ↗
No, the demand is, you see, what people don't understand about gold, that to bring a new mine to life, it's a period of seven years. During these seven years, people are consuming the same amount of gold and it's actually increasing. You know, but the population is increasing because of industry and use, because of the reserves governments are building now to create a different currency than the dollar. So, but to build a new mine, to bring it to production, is seven years. So, in the meanwhile, the demand is continuing. So, the trend, in my opinion, will always have one direction, which is up.
Interviewer 1:44 ↗
And when we look at that investment, particularly for a junior miner here, this is a lot of commitment, it's a lot of, you know, confidence in the market, and it's a lot of money that has to be put in here. As a junior miner, which I suppose you're in the kind of the frontier of exploring for gold, looking for gold, you know, where are the challenges in this because it's not always easy?
Naguib Sawiris 2:05 ↗
The challenge is the money itself, you know. Exploration is a very high-risk business. You might go out and spend 20, 30, 40 million dollars and not find anything. So, it will depend on the secret of the financial geologist, a geologist that is very good, but at the same time is very good to know how to spend the money. You know, it's just not go without the study, without the strategy, without analysis and so on, you know. So, it's not easy, but it's a very rewarding business once you find.
Interviewer 2:39 ↗
Now, we look at the data that's in place at the moment and the need for more data, more detailed data, and also the accessibility of that data. When we look at, you know, the almost proven reserves here in the Arabian, the Nubian Shield, where are there other areas in Egypt that you would be... Okay, the Eastern Desert... hasn't explored yet, has it?
Naguib Sawiris 2:58 ↗
Hasn't explored completely, and it's sitting in a lot of areas. The problem is that there is lower security and the army being there. And we hope now that the discussions and with conferences like that, you know, they get the message that, okay, we need to open up for miners and we provide the concessions in the Eastern Desert because it's a new area that has not been explored.
Interviewer 3:23 ↗
When we look at the, you know, I know the security for yourself and for all miners is very, very important. You know, but a lot of these mines are in remote areas and a lot of the potential is in the remote areas. You know, the move that the government made, the army made here, are you happy now that the sense of security on the mines, you know, puts you as an investor at ease?
Naguib Sawiris 3:44 ↗
I'm very happy. I just hope also, and I ask the government, that to continue their presence, to continue protecting these areas, you know, because the illegal miners were, some of them were bandits. They were very heavily armed. They were doing extortion and blackmail, blocking the ways for the mining companies to go. So, we are very happy with this latest development.
Interviewer 4:09 ↗
Now, the gold industry, I suppose, and the mining industry has really been, it's sort of jumping ahead in the last couple of years, maybe in the last decade. But, you know, you talk about that lag and that gap that has been there, unfortunately. Coming into, you know, this business that will take a few years to come to full production. But what have we missed out in terms of those gap years?
Naguib Sawiris 4:32 ↗
Well, they missed out foreign investment that could have come 15 to 20 years ago. We missed out on building capacity with the young Egyptians so that more Egyptians would study geology and engineering and so on, because the market was not there for jobs and everybody went to oil and gas.
Interviewer 4:54 ↗
A lot of young people talk about, you know, the need to have a focus, a cause, and work in environmentally friendly industries. And sometimes the mining sector has not appeared that environmentally friendly. Do you see that mining can be maybe not green, but getting there?

14 more exchanges in this transcript

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Cite this transcript

APA, MLA, BibTeX
APA

Sawiris, N. (2026, September 29). Naguib Sawiris | In2Metals | Egypt Mining Forum 2026 [Interview transcript]. Egypt Mining Forum. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3044332/

MLA

Naguib Sawiris. "Naguib Sawiris | In2Metals | Egypt Mining Forum 2026." Egypt Mining Forum, 29 Sep. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3044332/.

BibTeX 
@misc{sawiris2026_3044332,
  author       = {Naguib Sawiris},
  title        = {Naguib Sawiris | In2Metals | Egypt Mining Forum 2026},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, Egypt Mining Forum. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {sep},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3044332/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}